Dr. Seuss and religious product endorsements
From Judith Morgan's Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel:
March 13, 2008
February 14, 2008
The ecumenical sinfulness of Valentine's Day
Joanna Sugden has the scoop, complete with this social-enterprisey analysis from a moderate Muslim blog:
Newspapers are featuring ads for flowers and articles on various Muslims worldwide with their panties in a bunch about any holiday not explicitly mentioned in Sahih Bukhari. But in all the conspicuous consumption and harrumphing, the ones that Muslims should really be focused on get lost in the shuffle as usual. Many of the trappings of Valentine’s Day have ugly and sometimes bloody pasts that no amount of red satin can hide. The items we exchange as gifts are often produced by workers who are paid little or nothing, live in wretched conditions, and face cruelty and danger in their work. Yet in the denouncing of this holiday, even the holier than thou forgot the poor and the oppressed.
Patented condom advent calendar
No, really:
An advent calendar comprises 25 condoms each held behind a respective door for selective removal. Information is contained behind each door and a special condom is available on Christmas eve.
February 12, 2008
Saudi virtue commission bans red roses
Roses in Riyadh will soon be rare, now that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has banned items with a scarlet hue from floral and gift shops.
December 26, 2007
Untitled
Via the Consumerist
December 25, 2007
The Nativity gets served
December 24, 2007
Hooked on God
December 23, 2007
GPS Jesus
Away in a manger is not only a hymn, it's also an apt description of what happens to baby Jesus in several nativity scenes each year--namely, he gets stolen. CrunchGear (via Wired?) reports that a Florida church has come up with a technological solution to a rash of creche-napping:
Their Baby Jesus™ keeps getting ripped off, even after they nailed it down (again with the Xmas irony), so they’re fitting it with a GPS tracker so that, if stolen again, they can track down their Jesus.
A devilish designer Christmas card
From Phunk Studio:
Voodoo Child Christmas Card by Nicolas and Weston Cage
It's Christmas, and that means time for wives everywhere to break out the traditional skull jewelry and excoriate their addled spouses for buying them inappropriate gifts.
(Didn't know that Nicolas Cage--"star of National Treasure II, playing now at a theater near you!"--and his son were producing a comic book? Cage Factor has more on Voodoo Child and the entire line of Virgin Comics, which "hopes to challenge titans Marvel and DC by marketing largely to Asia and infusing the story lines with Eastern mythology." HT: The Beat)
December 14, 2007
An intoxicating alternative to Christmas Tree idolatry
Does the prophet Jeremiah's condemnation of Christmas trees make you uncomfortable with decorating your own this holiday season?
Well, one way to maintain the tradition without violating the letter of Jeremiah's command would be to make your very own beer bottle Christmas tree! No woods or chopping necessary--just plenty of holiday cheer.
HT: Russell's Teapot, AltReligion, Unbounded Edition, Faith Central
December 13, 2007
The comic book twelve days of Christmas
Now this is fun:
December 11, 2007
IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR
Did you know that one of the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus was a sneaker-wearing demon summoner? It's but one of the historic faith and fashion facts revealed by this fun animated "tale of three nerds who turn a nativity scene into a LARP battle."
By for tax reasons, via Transbuddah.
December 10, 2007
How to keep men awake at a performance of Handel's messiah
Years ago, back when I was in college, I attended an annual Messiah church sing-a-long with a married couple. The wife found the whole experience inspiring; the husband fell asleep. Perhaps he and the other male conscripts would have paid more attention at the Messiah performed last weekend at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church.
Another (eco-friendly) geek Christmas tree
While the Pac Man Christmas tree is indeed most excellent, it doesn't exactly score high on the environmental sustainability scale.
That's where Portland's Free Geek program steps in. As nonprofit tech consultant Beth Kanter explains, the tree pictured above is made out of recycled computer material and CDs.
And here's another example of the program's creative dealings with e-waste: "a Chinese New Year's dragon made from the paper inside of printer drums."
December 08, 2007
Pac Man Christmas Tree in Madrid
Let's see, Pac Man is the hungry baby Jesus* and the ghosts are our sins . . .
Ahhhhh, ferget about the obligatory spiritual lessons. As someone who pretty much decimated his college savings on Pac Man, Galaga and Asteroids back in the day, this real-world working Christmas tree game in Madrid is arguably the coolest holiday display ever.
Below: a video of the tree in action.
*Or not:
The Square America Christmas Spectacular
This is one of many "strange and wonderful real photo Christmas cards" at The Square America Christmas Spectacular, a project of the addictive Boat Lullabies found photo blog.
December 05, 2007
Recycled circuit board and CD christmas tree decorations
November 25, 2007
RTTY Christmas from the USSR
Click here for the artwork, a nifty holiday image from the online RTTY (Radio Teletype) collection. As explained on Artscene.textfiles.com, RTTY art, "generated from capital letters, numbers, and punctuation marks," was the precursor to contemporary ASCII art.
August 01, 2007
Neopagan Lammas jewelry
Alchemille's Secret Garden has a round-up of products appropriate for today's celebration of Lammas, a neopagan festival rooted in worship of the corn god. Among them: her own MAIZE jewelry, available on Etsy.com.
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March 17, 2007
The symbolism of Irish jewelry
For St. Patrick's Day, here's a helpful guide to the symbolic significance of Irish jewelry, courtesy of your #1 guide to holidays & world faith, which is also well worth visiting today for the link to a sharp takedown of The Secret.
December 23, 2006
Harry Potter and the Magical Pendants
OK, so now the world knows that the title of Harry Potter Book Seven is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But there is so much we don't know. How is Harry going to overcome the powerful magic of Lord Voldemort? How are children going to resist the lure of Harry Potter's unbiblical warlock-ery so as to avoid being tricked into becoming Satan worshippers? And what are you going to wear to the seventh book's release party?
The answer to all these questions might well be the necklace below: an All Hallows Eve "warding pendant," which enables its wearer to resist magic.
All-Hallows-Breaking-Loose Bonus Pendant: More inclined to embrace the magic than resist it? Then you might also want to check out this nifty Hallows pendant:
Yogi: Too Chot for TV
When I did my graduate work in religion, we studied Aquinas, Luther, Niebuhr, Barth, but this . . . *this* is religious history. Animation & comics writer Mark Evanier relates a behind the scenes story of how CBS censored a 1982 Christmas special featuring Yogi Bear and other Hanna Barbera characters because one of them dared to acknowledge Chanukkah.
Below is a video of the scene, apparently preserved forever in censored form on the master tape. The original line spoken by Snagglepuss in his trademark style was "Merry Christmas! Seasons Greetings! Happy Chanukah even!" CBS censors were adamant that the word Chanukah was verboten, so out it went. As Evanier, who wrote the scene, concludes, "I thought my people were supposed to run Hollywood but I guess I was wrong."
December 19, 2006
High on Mistletoe
Here's "Mistletoe Medallions," a new Christmas hip hop parody:
December 18, 2006
JC/DC
The Bible says "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me," but why should the Romans be the only ones who get to hoist Jesus on a tree? This is a Jesus Christmas tree topper from Christian Dollar--and don't look for it anywhere else, because it's patented!
There's more, um, cheeky commentary on this item over at Ship of Fools.
December 01, 2006
Penguin Christmas Tree Pin
The box office success of Happy Feet makes it official: penguins are the new (teddy) bears. If you know where to look, you can even find a live penguin cam on the web.
But are penguins really appropriate for a Christmas tree? After all, some people claim that Happy Feet is actually liberal atheist propaganda!
November 30, 2006
Have yourself a merry pagan Christmas
Speaking of the reason for the season, American Atheists is selling a pagan solstice ornament "start a fresh Solstice tradition in your household."
Scoff if you will, but I think that Americans are more primed for this than you might think. Mother Nature, Heat Miser (the sun god), Cold Miser (the snow god)--what else is The Year Without a Santa Claus if not a pagan evangelistic tool? And of course, no self-respecting idolator could do without his (or her!) own household gods:
September 04, 2006
Labor Daze
What better way to mark the arrival of Labor Day than with this stylin' Sisyphus Watch from the New York Public Library? Be sure to click the pic to see the watch in action.
June 14, 2006
Flag Day
June 14 is Flag Day in the United States, and it's also my mother's birthday. So what better way to mark it here than with this Miraculous Mother Mary Flag Pin & Medal set?
HT: Jennifer Emick
May 29, 2006
Memento mori
Cross on sale for Memorial Day at Reeds Jewelers. If the heading on this post sounds a little familiar but you just can't place it, click here.
May 01, 2006
May Daze
More on May first holidays here.
May Day
April 23, 2006
Orthodox Easter
Today is Easter in the Orthodox Church. Sure, Orthodox believers have to wait an extra week, but it also means they can find Easter chocolate on sale.
Above, a Resurrection Cross from the Russian Orthodox tradition. Click here for an explanation of what's on the cross, and here for other examples of cross jewelry from the extensive Gallery Byzantium collection.
April 09, 2006
In your face!
"You want Palm Sunday jewelry? I'll show you Palm Sunday jewelry."
March 17, 2006
Bah, Humbug!
Today Chicago dyed its eponymous river green.
Today, bars in New York opened at 9 a.m. so people could get lubricated before the big parade.
Isn't it time we put the "Saint" back in St. Patrick's Day?
Here's a piece of jewelry attempting to do just that:
--a green-beaded rosary with a St. Patrick medal.
But that's not the half of it. Once you learn his hidden teachings, the revolutionary message of Saint Patrick will deeply stir your soul. In fact, it might even change the way you think about your life.
Too bad I can't tell it to you, because I'm about to go out for green beer!
February 16, 2006
Spiral of Creation & Love
Our pendant today combines both of this week's themes of love & creation. It's the Japanese symbol known as the seed of the universe, and it's available from the good folks at Gems & More in Mooloolaba, Australia, a town at which I'd never shake the dust from my feet for no other reason than I love the name..
This image conveys a sense of dynamic creation and growth. If it reminds you of something you've seen already this week, praise yourself for your heightened degree of spiritual enlightenment--this symbol is one of many that echoes a spiral, and in so doing it echoes the spiral swirls in our Valentine's Day nebulae.
Why the fascination with spirals? We'll talk about a lot more as the Blingdom grows, but if you want a little taste check out this uplifting site.
February 14, 2006
Heaven Scent
It wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a rose, and the Blingdom is no exception. But as inspiring as hand-crafted jewelry can be, we should not ignore marvels of the heavens!
The above Valentine's commemorative photo depicts a cluster of newborn stars "found in a rosebud-shaped (and rose-colored) nebulosity known as NGC 7129." This striking photo was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope and is one of many spectacular images found on NASA's Planetary Photojournal.
If you want to bring the stars into your love life, advanced perfume technology has enabled us to capture a sensation literally not of this earth: the unique space rose scent created when astronauts took a rose into space. You can experience this yourself in "the fragrance of the spirit," Shiseido ZEN.
EXTRA: Looking for other items inspired by nebulae? Here are a few pieces to contemplate:
EXTRA EXTRA: Did you know that some believe a NASA photo of a "rose nebula" proves the Quran to be the word of God? At the turn of the millennium, many Muslims celebrated the following Hubble photo of the Cat's Eye Nebula as the fulfillment of Sura 55:37-38, "When the sky disintegrates, and turns rose colored like the paint, which of your Lord's marvels can you deny?"
Meet the Beetles
"A bug necklace for Valentine's Day? Are you JOKING??????"
Sure, that may be your (or your sweetheart's) initial reaction to this Pharoah's Scarab Valentine Necklace, but work with me for a minute. In ancient Egypt the scarab was the symbol-of-all-trades: new life, best wishes, strength, eternity--from tablets to seals to the scarab heart amulet placed on the dead, this hearty little beetle said it all.
And why not? The egyptian dung beetle is a nifty metaphor for renewal and rebirth, as it rolls, um, junk up into a large ball from which baby beetles emerge. It's the rising of the sun, the tree from the seed, the birds and the bees, all rolled up in one.
Still not convinced? Well, just think of it as an ancient version of the bear, which can be a mark of power or a token of affection & good will.
Although I gotta admit, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a hieroglyphic scarab in boxer briefs.
